Top financial advisers are concerned that a rash of fund launches in the BRIC economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China - might be attracting investors unused to risky funds.

And they also question whether these volatile markets are heading for a fall.

In the past 12 months, emerging markets have outperformed those in the developed world by a huge margin. The Indian, Russian and Brazilian stock markets have nearly doubled in value over the past year. The Chinese market is down on its peak of last summer, but is still up hugely over the year.

More importantly, a key measure of value for investors (and a measure of over-exuberance) known as the price-earnings ratio is huge. The higher the PE, the more a company must increase its earnings to justify its share price.

Based on one way of measuring, the average PE on the Chinese stock market is about 50. In comparison, in Britain it's about 14.

Added to that, more money is going into emerging market funds than before the credit crunch. Figures from the IMA this week showed that in January, more than £600m went into funds that are fully or partly invested in emerging markets.

But there are concerns that these markets' runaway rise may be slowed by their own governments. Brazil and India are expected to increase interest rates soon to contain inflation - if this happens, share prices could fall abruptly.

China isn't expected to put up its interest rates markedly, but its government is trying to stop too rapid growth by measures that include making banks hold more cash.

Much of the concern comes on the back of the biggest fund launch for years, Fidelity China Special Situations. This fund aims to raise £637m for the veteran fund manager Anthony Bolton.

While Mr Bolton is a proven successful investor, there are worries that inexperienced investors may be carried away with enthusiasm and decide to put their Isa money in these risky markets just when they may be at a peak.

Tim Cockerill, of Ashcourt Rowan, says the amount of money invested in emerging market trusts over the past 12 months was higher than over the 12 months before the financial crisis.

'It's almost as if the credit crunch had not happened. Some investors have a lot of money sitting in these funds and these markets have risen too fast to be comfortable.

'They are looking expensive and, if I could, I would be waving a flag and saying beware. There is clearly room for a significant pull-back.'

And Patrick Connolly, of adviser AWD Chase de Vere, says: 'There is a huge amount of interest in emerging market funds, which started from Anthony Bolton's launch.

'Other fund management companies are looking to launch their own funds and advisers are selling them. The risk is that people will be over-exposed in emerging markets and may not be comfortable with the volatility.

'The big risk is not with the Fidelity fund launch, but if other fund management houses jump on the bandwagon.'

But Brian Dennehy, of adviser Dennehy Weller, says: 'Shares in emerging markets might be more expensive than in the developed world, but they deserve to be.

'Their growth is vastly superior to developed economies. The countries themselves are not highly indebted, nor are their companies. However, emerging markets will continue to be more volatile than the developed economies.

'Undoubtedly, there will be a correction, but we don't know when this will happen or how deep it will be. You could easily be down 50 % within a year. The easy way to get around this is to invest monthly.'

Mr Dennehy likes the two Jupiter single country funds, India and China, First State Global Emerging Market Leaders and Templeton Global Emerging Markets.

Mr Connolly says that for most investors, a general emerging markets fund rather than one linked to single countries is a better idea. His favourites are JP Morgan Emerging Markets, and Aberdeen Emerging Markets and Opportunities.